DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The town of Dover-Foxcroft has temporarily banned data center applications and projects for 180 days.
In that time, town officials will examine existing ordinances to see if they are enough to regulate potential future projects.
Dover-Foxcroft is one of the latest rural Maine towns to consider banning large-scale data centers. Bangor also extended its pause for another six-month timespan. Panic around artificial intelligence is ratcheting up across the country and bipartisan opposition grows against data center construction.
Dover-Foxcroft hasn’t had any data center proposals come forward, but wants to be prepared.
“There is no pending proposal before us yet, which is why we’re doing a moratorium,” Select Chair Steve Grammont said. “The purpose of this is to determine if what we have on the books is sufficient.”
The Maine Data Center Advisory Council is working to regulate future projects in the state with a report due early next year. Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill in the spring that would have placed an 18-month statewide ban on large-scale data centers.
Dover-Foxcroft’s resolution defines a data center as any building, structure or facility or group thereof, whose primary use is the storage, management, processing or transmission of digital data and which houses computer systems, servers and associated components.
The resolution could include such things as cooling systems and power supply infrastructure related to cloud computing facilities, server farms, cryptocurrency mining operations, artificial intelligence training or processing facilities and data storage warehouses.
The town doesn’t want to close the door on development, but wants all businesses to pay their fair share, Grammont said.
A temporary pause will give the town time to evaluate and coordinate with the state, he said.
“This makes sense to me that we would take time to be careful with ordinance if someone came forward with a proposal as they are proposing to do in other parts of the state,” Selectperson Cindy Freeman Cyr said.
The 180-day timeframe does not mean a business interested in a data center cannot approach the town, Grammont said.
“It’s not about being business friendly, it’s making sure we have time to evaluate this,” he said. “It’s foolish to say no to a net benefit, but it’s foolish to say yes to a net negative.”
BDN writer Annie Rupertus contributed to this story.